At the end of June, the 65th national memorial seminar will take place at the Arolsen Archives.

Search for names online

13 million documents are now online! You can search for the names of victims of Nazi persecution in our portal. However, please remember that this is not a full search, because many of the documents held in the Arolsen Archives are not yet accessible in the online archive.

#StolenMemory

Personal possessions of concentration camp prisoners: The #StolenMemory campaign has been running since 2016. With the support of volunteers, we are searching for the relatives of victims of National Socialist persecution. We are only looking after the personal possessions in our care; they do not belong to the archive.

UNESCO World Documentary Heritage

The German town of Bad Arolsen is home to the world’s largest archive on the victims and survivors of the Nazi regime: despite belonging to the UNESCO’s Memory of the World, it is still not well known. Our history timeline has further interesting information.

Are you looking for information on the fates of victims of Nazi persecution? Please fill in the form provided. We will check whether the Arolsen Archives hold relevant documents. If so, we will send you digital copies.

FAQ

Who are the Arolsen Archives and what do they do?

The Arolsen Archives are an international center on Nazi persecution with the world’s most comprehensive archive on the victims and survivors of National Socialism. The collection has information on about 17.5 million people and belongs to the UNESCO’s Memory of the World. It contains documents on the various victim groups targeted by the Nazi regime and is an important source of knowledge, especially for younger generations.To this day, the Arolsen Archives answer inquiries about some 20,000 victims of Nazi persecution every year. For decades, clarifying fates and searching for missing persons were the central tasks of the institution, which was founded by the Allies in 1948 as the “International Tracing Service”.Research and education are more important than ever to inform today’s society about the Holocaust, concentration camps, forced labor and the consequences of Nazi crimes. The Arolsen Archives are building up a comprehensive online archive so that people all over the world can access the documents and obtain information.

Who can use the Arolsen Archives?

Anyone who is looking for information on the victims of National Socialism, former inmates of concentration camps or forced laborers, or for information on displaced persons during the period following 1945. The Federal Republic of Germany finances our work to help enable individuals to come to terms with the consequences of Nazi persecution. This means we can offer our services free of charge to survivors and to victims’ relatives: we conduct research and search for traces which can help them to come to a better understanding of their family history. We also offer a range of services for other interested parties from the fields of education, research or archiving.

Has the International Tracing Service ceased to exist?

Since May 2019, we have been operating under the new name Arolsen Archives – International Center on Nazi Persecution. The institution itself has not changed and we continue to do the same work, of course, just as we did in the past. The archive was created to document the crimes of the National Socialists and the fates of the victims. Current social developments show that it is becoming more and more important to awaken interest in these topics in order to keep knowledge about the crimes perpetrated by the Nazi regime and the inhuman ideology behind it alive. The new name and the move to become an international center on Nazi persecution is a logical consequence of this development. By the way, International Tracing Service will be preserved as a legal name because the international agreements with the member states use this name.